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Main:Maria Paseka
Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia |Row 5 title = Club |Row 5 info = Central Army Sports Club (CSKA) Dynamo Moscow (former) |Row 6 title = Coach(es) |Row 6 info = Evgeny Grebyonkin, Marina Ulyankina Nadezhda Galtsova and Vyacheslav Selifanov, Aleksandr Aleksandrov (former) |Row 7 title = Current status |Row 7 info = Active}}Maria Valeryevna Paseka (Russian: Мария Валерьевна Пасека, born July 19, 1995) is a Russian artistic gymnast and 2012 and 2016 Olympian. She began gymnastics when she was six years old — and she made the choice herself. Her career began at the world-renowned Moscow Dynamo gymnastics club where her first coaches were Nadezhda Galtsova and Vyacheslav Selifanov. In 2009, she began training with Marina Gennadyevna Ulyankina and now trains at Round Lake outside of Moscow with her coach and the Russian National Team coaches. At the 2012 Olympics, she won the bronze medal on vault and the silver medal with the Russian team. In 2015, she became European and World Vault Champion, and reclaimed the latter title in 2017 and the former title in 2019. Junior Career 2010 She was on the winning Russian junior team at the 2010 European Championships where she also won a silver medal on vault. Maria also won a Russian national title in 2010. She was third in the all-around qualifications, but the two-per-country rule kept her in the spectators' stands during the final. Senior Career 2011 At the beginning of 2011 and after a number of operations and physical therapy, Maria returned to training in the gym. He first meet was in August at the Russia Cup in Yekaterinburg. There she won the bronze medal on vault. Maria currently has the most difficult vault on the Russian team. 2012 On July 7th, Paseka was named to the Russian team for the Olympic Games. During qualifications, Paseka qualified third to the vault event final. During the team final, Paseka only competed on vault, where she scored a 15.300 after taking a larg step out of bounds. In the last rotation, after teammate Anastasia Grishina's floor routine (where she received a 12.466), Paseka and her teammates were all in tears, as they thought they hadn't done enough to even medal. When they found out they won the silver, placing behind the United States and ahead of Romania, they were all smiles during the medal ceremony. In the vault event final, Paseka went up sixth. On her first vault, she took another large step out of bounds like in the team final and scored a 15.400. Her second vault scored a 14.700, averaging out to a 15.050. She won the bronze behind Romania's Sandra Izbasa and USA's McKayla Maroney. 2013 In January, Paseka was announced as part of the lineup for the La Roche-sur-Yon World Cup. However, when she arrived in France in March, she was denied entry due to a visa problem and had to return to Moscow. In March, Paseka competed at the Russian Championships. She helped her team, Moscow, win the silver medal in the team final, won the vault, and placed eighth on uneven bars. Later that month, Paseka was named to the Russian team for the European Championships.Euros At the European Championships, Paseka was the favorite for the vault title, but surprisingly fell on both her vaults and finished seventh in the final. Afterwards, Paseka bounced back by winning bronze on the uneven bars behind compatriot Aliya Mustafina and Sweden's Jonna Adlerteg. In July, Paseka competed at the Universiade, winning gold with the team and bronze on vault. In August, she competed at the Russian Cup, winning silver on vault and bars, bronze on floor, and placing fourth in the team final. Paseka was named to the Russian team for the World Championships. She was going to compete vault, bars, and floor, but began to suffer back problems, and dropped the latter two events. Then, her back problems got worse, and she withdrew from the World Championships. She was selected to compete at the Swiss Cup in early November, but withdrew, as she was not fully healed yet. 2014 Her first competition back was the Russian Championships in April, where she only competed on vault and bars. She won silver with her team and on vault. At the Russian Cup in August, she won team gold, vault bronze, and placed fifth on floor. She was left off the Russian team for the World Championships, but competed at the Elite Gym Massilia in France that November, winning vault gold, team silver, and placing sixth on bars. In December, she competed at the Voronin Cup, winning vault gold and uneven bars silver. 2015 In early March, she competed at the Russian Championships, winning team and vault silver and uneven bars bronze. She had also qualified for the floor exercise final but pulled out. She intially was an alternate for the European Championships, and was flown into France at the last minute to replace an injured Alla Sosnitskaya. Without having done podium training with the rest of her team, she qualified fourth into the vault final. During the event final, she pulled off two difficult and upgraded vaults, including a much-improved Amanar to win the European title over defending champion Giulia Steingruber. In July, Paseka returned to the Universiade to win team and vault gold as well as bronze on uneven bars. At the Russian Cup in September, she won team and vault gold, floor exercise silver, and placed fifth on uneven bars. She was named to the Russian team for the World Championships, where she qualified second to the vault final and helped Russia qualify second to the team final. Russia could not duplicate their success in the team final, and finished out of the medals, behind the bronze medal-winning British team. Individually, Paseka took Russia's first gold medal in Glasgow, besting reigning champion Hong Un-Jong on vault. 2016 In April, she competed at the Russian Championships. She fell on both vaults in qualifications and event finals, where she placed fourth, and won team silver. At the Russian Cup in July, she won gold on vault but only placed fourth with her team. She was named to the Russian Olympic team shortly thereafter.Olympics Rio Olympics Russia competed in the second subdivision of qualifications, starting on balance beam. Paseka only competed vault, but had issues on the landings, resulting in her only qualifying fourth into the vault final. She was better in the team final, nearly sticking her Amanar to get Russia the team silver. In the vault final, she won silver behind USA's Simone Biles and ahead of European Champion Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland. 2017 After taking a break from training, Paseka competed at the European Championships, but a subpar performance in the vault final left her in fourth place, just shy of a medal. She later competed at the Universiade in Taiwan in August, winning team gold and vault bronze. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Montreal, Canada, defending her World title on vault. 2019 After taking a year off to have surgery on her back, Paseka returned to competition at the Russian Championships in March, winning team and vault gold. Her return to international competition at the Baku World Cup, trying to qualify to the Olympics as an individual, but fell in the vault final and finished fifth. She fared better at the Doha World Cup, qualifying first to the vault final and winning a silver. She competed at the European Championships in Szczecin, Poland in April, reclaiming her European title on vault. In June, she competed at the Korea Cup, but sat down her Amanar and finished fourth on vault. In August, she competed at the Russian Cup, but fell on both of her vaults and finished fifth. She competed at the Cottbus World Cup, but fell on her second vault and finished sixth. Trivia *One gymnastics fan used Google Translate to translate a Russian article about her. Her name was translated to "Maria Bee Farm". Since then, many gymnastics fans have called her "Bee Farm". Medal Count Floor Music 2009-2010 - "Aranjuez (Mon Amour)" by Herb Alpert 2011-2012 - "Hasta Que Te Conoci" by Raul Di Blasio/ "Call Me, Call" by Natasha Koroleva" References